Eric Horst has some words of advice for the groundhog Thursday.

You might want to see your shadow, pal.

That's because the Millersville University meteorologist says the weather patterns are lining up to favor a colder, perhaps snowier finish to this winter, which has been rather tepid to date.

"I speculate we could have a few weeks where there are more cold days than warm days, and the opportunity for some winter mischief," Horst said of the coming month.

In a normal winter, cold days are about as newsworthy as a sunrise.

But this is not a normal winter.

January featured some up-and-down temperatures, but the warm days outnumbered the cold ones, and the month ended up 3.6 degrees above normal following a December that was 5.4 degrees above normal.

We have had only about 5 inches of snow this winter. The normal snowfall for January alone is 10 inches.

Lancaster County has lots of company when it comes to this year's wimpy winter weather, according to a recent Associated Press report. Golf is more common than skiing in the West. In the Midwest, ice rinks are slushy. In New England, ski resorts are brown instead of white.

It's all the result of the La Niña weather patterns, pushing winds west to east rather than north to south and producing some glorious days like Tuesday.

Now the party finally may be over, or just beginning, depending on your perspective.

A change in the jet stream, starting this weekend, will push frigid Canadian air down over the United States.

The county still could see up-and-down temperatures in February, but now the cold might dominate the warmth, Horst said.

Colder air will bring "clipper" systems, and shots of snow, as well as the chance for something more dramatic.

"If you get a storm from the south while you have Arctic air — voilà — you get a significant snow," Horst said.

"I don't see a big storm to put my finger on, but it increases the odds of something happening."

So a word to the wise to Octoraro Orphie. There are six more weeks of winter on the calendar.

And they might even feel like winter.

VIDEO: AccuWeather Forecast

cstauffer@lnpnews.com